SENATORS CRITICAL OF C.I.A. POLICING

By TIM WEINER,

Published: May 4, 1994

WASHINGTON, May 3—
A struggle long conducted in secrecy erupted into the open today as Congressional overseers of the Central Intelligence Agency battled its Director and belittled the Clinton Administration for opposing their plan to put spy catching in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the opening round of what promises to be a long and bitter argument over the C.I.A.'s ability to police itself, Mr. Clinton signed an executive order putting his national security adviser, Anthony Lake, atop a new Government board managing counterintelligence, the business of catching spies and turncoats.

Signed this morning minutes before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the subject began, the order was intended to block legislation proposed by the ranking members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence giving the F.B.I. responsibility for counterintelligence.

The relationship between the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., a source of tension for decades, has become a lightning rod for critics of the intelligence agency since the arrest of Aldrich H. Ames, the intelligence officer who last week pleaded guilty to spying for Moscow. His betrayal of C.I.A. secrets, which led to the deaths or disappearances of at least 12 Soviet and Eastern European agents working for the United States, went undetected for nine years.

The Senate Intelligence Committee's leaders, Dennis DeConcini, an Arizona Democrat, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, called the Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey; the F.B.I. Director, Louis J. Freeh, and Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick before them to discuss the relative merits of the executive order and the proposed law. In the end, they agreed to disagree.

Senator Warner warned Mr. Woolsey that a "battle royal" and a "firestorm" are coming in Congress over the costs and capabilities of American intelligence. He predicted that a bill to do away with the C.I.A. sponsored by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a New York Democrat, would receive "not one, not two, but many" votes if it came to the floor.

An angry exchange ensued as Senator DeConcini and Mr. Woolsey argued over the proper way to solve the problems exposed by the Ames case. Mr. Woolsey said the Senators' legislation "is badly drafted and is unwise." He said it would establish "an overseas rivalry between the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. that now, on the whole, does not exist and existed back in the late 40's and early 50's." He was referring to the earliest days of the C.I.A., when the agency and the bureau's longtime director, J. Edgar Hoover, first battled for dominance in the shadow world of catching Soviet spies.

Mr. DeConcini became furious at the intelligence director's criticism, calling it a "wild" statement "that does nothing constructive." Calling the Ames case "a disgrace," the Senator said that "the American public is losing confidence in our intelligence." And, referring to the secrecy of the intelligence budget, he launched a rhetorical shot across the bow of the C.I.A. A Warning

"There is more and more mail coming to me and questions all the time," said the Senator. " 'How much do we spend?' I can't say. 'Is it this much?' Well, that's what's been reported in the press. 'How can you spend that much on intelligence and have this kind of operation?' And 'Why doesn't somebody eliminate the C.I.A.?' as Senator Moynihan says. I mean, that's a real fear here."

"If you think for a moment that this is a passing feeling," he warned Mr. Woolsey, think again.

Since the C.I.A. was created in 1947, no Administration has gladly permitted Congress to legislate changes in the realm of national security, where the White House has traditionally asserted the privilege to conduct its affairs at it sees fit.

Though aides say the President does not rely on the C.I.A. as much as his predecessors, Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan, Mr. Clinton has supported the C.I.A. in several heated debates, including its still-secret budget and today's controversy. Some Government officials say Mr. Clinton's inexperience in national security matters and his desire to appear supportive of the military and intelligence services makes him defer more often than not to the judgment of national security officials about their agencies.

The debate today in the unusual open hearing largely overshadowed the executive order signed by Mr. Clinton. The secret order, Presidential Decision Directive 44, establishes a National Counterintelligence Center to root out espionage, an operations board to resolve conflicts and turf battles and a policy board. Atop the new structure sits the President's national security adviser.

In addition, a top F.B.I. official will become chief of the C.I.A.'s counterespionage group, a unit within the counterintelligence center at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Va., which was established in 1986 and staffed with people from throughout the intelligence community. C.I.A. officers will take management positions within the F.B.I.'s National Security Division, which has the power to investigate and arrest suspected spies in the United States.

None of this goes far enough for the ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, including Senator Bob Kerrey, the Nebraska Democrat who is in line to succeed Senator DeConcini, who is retiring after this term. Their bill would give the F.B.I. "overall responsibility for the conduct of counterintelligence and law enforcement investigations involving persons in critical intelligence activities." Friction Between 2 Agencies

The bill would effectively strip the C.I.A. of the right to police itself in the crucial early stages of internal investigations, and compel it to turn over counterintelligence data from foreign sources to the F.B.I.

Since the C.I.A.'s creation, 10 executive orders and memorandums of understanding have sought to coordinate the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., which has the power to collect intelligence from foreigners but not to investigate Americans.

All have failed to ease the frictions between the two agencies, the Senators said today. Now those frictions have become the basis for a far-ranging critique of the C.I.A.

Photo: Arguing about long-held secrets in public, top Administration officials appeared yesterday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. From left, they are Louis J. Freeh, Director of the F.B.I.; R. James Woolsey, Director of the C.I.A., and Jamie S. Gorelick, Deputy Attorney General. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times) (pg. A20)